Nearly a week has passed since the firing of Avalanche general manager Francois Giguere. The most underplayed aspect of the decision was who made and announced it — Pierre Lacroix.

Lacroix, deservedly already in the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame for his efforts in shepherding the franchise through its spectacularly successful early seasons in Denver, still is the de facto owner of the Avalanche.

It is Stan Kroenke’s property.

It still is Lacroix’s team.

Lacroix went into semi-retirement three years ago, driven to do so by a health scare and his long-professed desire to step out of the day-to-day operations while he still was relatively young. But at least temporarily, he has stepped back in as more than an emeritus figurehead, and will be in hands-on control, at least until a new “structure” is announced.

It’s not fun to watch anyone lose a job, but the train wreck that was the 2008-09 Avalanche, the decisions that helped cause the derailment, Giguere’s puzzling mishandling of the salary cap, and even Giguere’s maddening denial in his public pronouncements all made it virtually inevitable.

As I had written when the season was winding down, I thought it was possible that Lacroix would shove Giguere into a lesser role — how the titles shook down would have been almost irrelevant — but Lacroix decisively made the move and fired his one-time protege.

The part I found objectionable was Lacroix didn’t acknowledge that some of the decisions and moves he made while general manager played a role in this slide. He didn’t just throw Giguere under the bus, he backed the bus back over Giguere after he had run over him once.

The implication that this slide happened suddenly is partially defensible by looking at only the numbers, such as the Avalanche’s huge slippage in the standings this season, to the No. 28 spot overall after three consecutive decent, not great, 95-point seasons.

But anyone paying attention understands the issues involved in the Avalanche collapse aren’t confined to the last year or even the last three years under Giguere as GM. Even the trades made for short-term gain that helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup came with a price. But deals such as the one made the morning after Steve Moore’s final NHL game — Derek Morris and the rights to Keith Ballard to Phoenix for Ossi Vaana- nen, Chris Gratton and a draft pick — were even more troublesome, and in this case compounded the error of trading Chris Drury.

Even when the Avalanche had high draft choices, they blew them in the early 2000s, and that’s haunting the team to this day.

Lacroix, who deserves considerable gratitude for what he did to help energize this market and make hockey a big-time draw and participant sport in the region, should have been given the first crack to clean up the mess.

But that means stepping back in and running the franchise on a day-to-day and long-term basis, and not merely biding time before elevating someone in the organization into the GM’s role. Although Craig Billington is a savvy hockey man and wouldn’t be a bad choice, even that would come off as similar to the approach that was just repudiated.

Stan Kroenke should tell Lacroix he must either step in to try to further secure his legacy with a rescue and a turnaround, or accept the owner’s thanks and an honorary title — president emeritus — and allow Kroenke Sports to hire the sort of strong and proven GM who likely would be reluctant to work under Lacroix on an organizational chart.

Neil Smith, the former Rangers and briefly Islanders GM, and recently fired, but widely respected, ex-Minnesota GM Doug Risebrough would be just two of the many possibilities. If that’s the type of hire made, the new GM must be told he has the right to make the call on the future of coach Tony Granato. Either way.

A graduate of Wheat Ridge High School and the University of Colorado, Terry Frei has been named a state's sportswriter of the year six times -- three times each in Oregon and Colorado. He mainly covers college football and hockey for The Post. He's the author of seven books, including the novel "Olympic Affair" about Colorado's Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic decathlon champion.

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